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Friday, April 29, 2011

thursday

I like playing with my children.I don't do a lot of lying down on the grass with my fingers in the mud playing dinosaurs, but I love being close enough to them to hear the prehistoric recreations and stories being told.I don't do a lot of making puppies talk to space bunnies, but I'm close by enough for making tea for such momentous occasions, and always have a minute to play the Server.I like the tips.

Maddie started her day on the computer with pbs games.

It was a good time to open the windows and doors and imagine that I'd get the house clean.

Daddy was still home, and they chased each other around the house with foam things and laughing, bold threats for a while.

A little while later Trev and I decided upon Totally Tut (which we have to call by the codename The Pyramid Game since the name thoroughly bothers him for some reason :) ).

Today Trev put down 9 + 18 = 27, and I showed him how the one's column (for multiplying nines) goes down one at each addition. We talked about it for a while, and I'm pretty sure he has a good grasp on how that works. I also told him that any number that can be added together to make nine will be divisible by nine. (Nine plus zero is nine... next since we move into the tens column, it would be 1-8, next would be 2-7, next 3-6...) and that works the same way going all the way up... 711. or 324. I don't suppose he was very impressed with that, as he doesn't know about division and remainders yet, but we'll keep it handy. (We're unschoolers, remember... which means we don't force the issue but wait 'til things like this come up... like today!)

Subtrax! (it's been a while since we've played that one.)

While we played Maddie was playing with the Boggle dice, and I had a thought that if we used the letter dice we could just display them (in a couple of rows instead of the crazy boggle fashion) and Trev and I could use the letters to make words, and Maddie could write down the letters/sounds she can identify. I wasn't sure if they would like the game, or if would feel like I was trying to teach them something (which I wasn't, it was just an idea - personally, I love word scrambles and 'make a word' games) but it seemed to go over alright.

They played outside on the grass. Their mama admired the flowers and blossoms.

Wiiheeheee! (that was all three of us - "Mom... will you come downstairs and play with me?".)

I had an idea right after that (as I saw the game, still sitting out) that Trev and I could choose five or so letter dice, roll them, and then see what word we could come up with. The more letters the word, the more points we got?? Would he like that?We played that you could choose five or six dice... if you used all of your letters, you got a bonus of five points.Trev had the idea that you could turn your dice to different letters... we'll try that game next time we play (drawing five or six letters out of a bag), using an hourglass to keep the game challenging, still. Sounds fun!

Since I was supposed to be cleaning, and the wind was blowing so coolly throughout the house, I thought it a good idea for a little something--a warm, sweet, rich cuppa. :) aaaah.

I finally noticed (as I had started supper) that the day was almost over and I was still stepping on or over the same things. Which ordinarily would be totally ignored, and we'd just try again tomorrow.But we are expecting a visit from friends, so I said, "Hey... how 'bout we all go and together pick up the rooms we need to... then I'll shine up everything tomorrow?"The children joyfully agreed. We got Trevy's room done in a little while, made short work of Maddie's room, just had to pick up a paper or two in the livingroom, and then we tidied up the den.Cool! All done. Just as (an admittedly pretty late) supper was finishing cooking.

This is the way I love best to spend my days (and very, very typical for around here). Checking stuff out. C'mere-ing when I'm called to come admire or ooh! or exclaim cool! when I'm s'posed to.It's pretty much what I do--including sitting with them on the computer for two hours playing games, saying, "Hey, look! It's Notre Dame!"

Sometimes I wonder if it isn't really just self-indulgence that allows for these choices of mine. I mean... I almost always can make time for cookies. I love it when we make bread. I'll always sit at the computer to play certain games (I don't like 'shoot 'em, conquer' video games, personally, but I love learning new things from the more 'educational' ones).Is it hedonistic? Gluttonous?I might worry 'bout it for a minute or two, and then I think about where, truly, my moments are best spent.After a moment of pondering, I realize that it isn't likely that two years (or even two days) from now I shall be thinking "oh, that one tuesday in '67... I shoulda had a clean house instead of playing with and loving my babies!"The house gets done when it really needs to get done, after all.

Yes...priorities is what it's all about. You ought to see my house right now. Yikes! But we've been playing all day and snugglinng and loving and laughing and why would I give that up to CLEAN? Tomororw is Saturday, two adults home, it'll get done. Today we are enjoying each other. xoxo

ps - we LOVE word games too and use boggle dice in much the same way. :)